


A Hunt and a Reprieve

by EmeraldsAndAmethyst



Series: A Multiversal Interruption [3]
Category: Earth-12041 (Marvel), Spider-Man - All Media Types, Ultimate Spider-Man (Cartoon 2012)
Genre: Ben Grimm (Briefly), Crying, Fantastic Four Cameos, Invisible Woman (Marvel) (Briefly), Men Crying, Mr. Fantastic (Briefly), Reed Richards (Briefly) - Freeform, Subdrop, Sue Storm (Briefly), The Thing (Marvel) (Briefly), Universe Where Everyone Is a Cat, but they are cats, the fanCATstic Four
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-10
Updated: 2020-10-10
Packaged: 2021-03-07 16:48:31
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,881
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26930890
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EmeraldsAndAmethyst/pseuds/EmeraldsAndAmethyst
Summary: Peter keeps searching for his lost boyfriend. Meanwhile,Sam jumps dimensions until he finds a place to rest. It's weird as hell but at least he's safe.
Series: A Multiversal Interruption [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1964383
Kudos: 7





	A Hunt and a Reprieve

**Author's Note:**

> Previously:
> 
> _Sam had his helmet on and was rocketing up into orbit before he could even think. He pulled as much Nova force as he could channel and jumped dimensions with only the thought not here! Anywhere but here! To guide him._  
> 
> 
> _The dimension he landed in was somehow even worse. A Kree interdiction fleet was in system, and opened fire on him with no communication attempt at all. Fuck. He absorbed their energy weapon blasts, exhausting though the effort was, called enough Nova force to compensate, and jumped dimensions yet again._  
> 
> 
> _No ships were in system. Junk littered low Earth orbit, the ISS passed below him in its familiar orbital pass. For a few desperate moments, Sam thought he'd managed to jump home. Until he saw the moon. It was still there, it was still rock and not cheese or whatever. But it was shaped like the head of a cat. Cat ears and all._

PETER

Peter scrubbed his hands over his face with an exhausted sigh. Sam was still missing. Still missing and Peter hadn't even the tiniest smidgen of a hint as to where the hell his boyfriend was. He’d been staring at the same stupid data for who knew how long, to the point where it was swimming uselessly before his traitorous eyes.

Sleep could wait. 

He had a boyfriend to find. Even if Sam was… if Sam wasn't, his helmet would still be giving off a signal. He just needed to find it out there amid an endless miasma of alternate universes with their own Bucketheads in them. Something that no stupid useless dumbass genius on this earth seemed able to do yet.

Peter caught himself staring blankly at the holo screens for the Nth time. His mind replaying the stupid colossal whatever the hell whale or beast or thing it was. And Sam getting swallowed up, then blasting out and in and giving it more holes than Swiss cheese. He'd been so terrified, then so incredibly proud and relieved. Up until its death throws had started popping spider people in and out of their dimension. It had already popped a handful of spider people into this dimension before it started dying. Thank goodness one of them had been able to catch Peter before he'd become a Spider pancake. Peter was sure that Sam had gotten caught up in its incomprehensible dimensional shifting. He just needed to figure out where Sam had gone!

"Peter, you need to rest," Mary Jane said, her voice snapping him back to the here and now.

"I can't," Peter said. He wasn't exaggerating, either. Any attempt at sleep ended in nightmares.

* * *

SAM

The cat head shaped moon continued on its way, uncaring over Sam's total bewilderment.

"What the flark," Sam said, panting desperately. He took a closer look at the International space station and realized that it also was weirdly cat themed.

"What the fuck," Sam said to himself, finally catching his breath.

This clearly wasn't home. But he wasn't being shot at and he wasn't being commed. Cautiously, he made his way down to Earth. At least the planet wasn't in the shape of a cat, just the moon. But when he got in view of New York, he was only left more confused. The city was mostly like he remembered, and human sized and even had buses and subways that were running. But there were no humans. None. There were cats.

Fat cats, skinny cats, fluffy cats, sleek cats, kittens and Granny cats. Gramps cats too he guessed. But seriously! Cats were everywhere!

Not cats that looked like furries. Not cats that acted like people. Not even cartoon cats!

Sam made his weary, bewildered way to Avengers tower. Only, on a second look, there was no tower. He'd never been to a dimension without an Avengers Tower before. Hesitantly, he made his way to the Baxter building instead. It, at least, was here in this weird dimension.

It shouldn't have surprised him that the Fantastic Four were cats. But it was jarring all the same when a fancy looking, long haired cat burst into flames. He'd been expecting Storm to be an orange cat, though he didn't really know why. He found cat-Sue when she rubbed up against his leg while invisible. He fell flat on his face like an idiot and decided that this was as good a place as any to try and sleep off the adrenaline crash. He rolled onto his side and tried to calm his mind. Cat-Reed pawed at his face. It was pretty clearly him, what with the little socked paw stretching away out of Sam's line of sight. Sam groaned and threw his arm over his face.

"Could you flarking not," Sam said, tired down deep in his bones. The cats didn't understand. Or didn't care. But only a few more annoying pokes were all he got, before cat-Johnny sauntered up, plopped down on Sam's side and set to grooming his butt fur with gusto. Sam was too frazzled to even snap a pic to show his dimensions Johnny Storm for posterity. He fell asleep, at some point. Somehow.

But he didn't sleep long. He woke up in a cold sweat, terrified and not entirely sure why. Fuck. He sat up and the cats yoweled their displeasure and ran away. Not very far away though. Oh, cat Ben was here now. He made his rocky, grumpy way back over to Sam and sat on his lap.

"Sorry," Sam said, feeling like a fool. Cat Ben let out a gravelly sounding purr. Something pushed against his shoulder and his knee, but he couldn't see it. He figured it was Sue and one of her force fields. Reed was nowhere to be seen. Johnny was somehow managing to groom himself with an offended aura about him. 

Sam should stay here. He was much more lost than he'd ever been before. He had even less of an idea how to get back to his home dimension from this one. And Peter was surely worrying himself sick looking for him. He also felt like shit. Absorbing energy was exhausting. And the combined blasts from multiple Kree ships hadn't exactly been a walk in the park.

Sam absently pet at the Cat Ben still purring away in his lap. And he thought.

Even hopped up on adrenaline, he knew he wasn't fast enough or strong enough to surprise a spider person. Maybe once, but their reaction times were so fast that having gotten to his helmet that Peter still could have stopped him from putting it on. Sam could only conclude that he'd been allowed to leave. But why the fuck.

The food. Of course. 

"I'm an idiot. _Flark_ , _das't_ spiders and their obsession with food," Sam said. Ben's purrs grew louder. Sue appeared and made an annoyed little hiss at him. If she'd been speaking any kind of language his helmet would translate it. But it was just a cat sound. If Sam didn't know any better he'd think she was annoyed at his language. Heh, can't pretend cosmic cursing wasn't as bad when the people you're around also know the language.

"Mrrow!" Johnny said, pausing in his fastidious grooming to look over at Sam. It was almost like he was teasing him. That was… definitely weird.

"You guys can understand me?"

Sue ignored him, wandering away on mysterious cat business. Johnny shrugged and resumed grooming his ridiculously long fur. Now that Sam had seen her, he noticed that Sue had the same fancy coat colors as Johnny. But her fur was much shorter. Ben stretched his rocky little, well relatively little, paws and yawned. Then got up and sat in his chair. Not a cat sized version or anything like that, no. This Baxter building seemed to have the same layout that Sam was familiar with and he suddenly realized he could take an actual shower and sleep in a real bed. Hell. Yes.

"Hey, uh, so thanks for letting me crash here. I'm having a hell of a time right now. This is super awesome of you. And if it's cool with everyone, I'll make my way to the guest bathroom and shower?" Sam said. He had no idea if these cats understood him, but better to be polite then get the FanCatstic Four on his ass for being a jerk.

He took his helmet off in the bathroom, even though the cats probably didn't care. It felt weird just walking around the living areas naked. Sam scrubbed himself vigorously. The guest shower, well every shower except Johnny's, couldn't get hot enough to burn. But the hot water felt good all the same. When he was done he dried himself off with plush, soft towels. But there was no robe. The towels were huge so Sam just wrapped it around his waist and made his way to the guest bedroom. The closet had no clothes. None. This was definitely not right. There was always something here. Usually some of Sue's old clothes, some of Reed's, a stupid amount of things Johnny had grown bored of. And a few plain shirts and pants in a range of sizes.

Sam checked the dresser next. It also was missing clothing. No, wait. The top drawer had collars resting on a display sort of stand so they could be looked at and found easily instead of becoming a big piled mess as soon as the drawer closed.

"What the fuck," Sam said, staring at the cat sized collars. "How do they even get them on?"

The collars were normal cat safety collars. The kind that break away if too much pressure is put on them, to keep the cats safe from strangling. Another drawer and more of the same. Sam searched high and low for anything he could cover himself with, but the only things were sheets and towels. 

"Of fucking course," he snarled to no one. He stomped around a bit, aggravated. Then he started crying. "Oh fucking Hell. Seriously?"

He flung himself onto the guest bed and didn't bother trying to stop. He knew he was crashing from, well a whole bunch of shit but also from the interrupted scene with his boyfriend. Peter was so caring and sweet after scenes that he'd been getting better, dammit. After a little while of feeling miserable, the door opened and cat Johnny made himself right at home on top of Sam's naked back.

"Ow," Sam said, when he started up a claw massage. Johnny licked him with his little sandpapery kitty tongue, as if in apology. 

Sam noticed that he was clutching the spidey tag on his collar hard enough that his fingers had gone numb. Reluctantly, he thought the unstable molecules back into the simple silver necklace of his stealth collar. He managed to fall asleep somehow, clinging to his stealth collar like it was a lifeline.

Sam managed to stay put for about a day. Trying to rest up but unable to sleep for long. By the time a real disaster struck, he was feeling even worse than he'd been when he'd first arrived. The things that found him were tiny, aggressive, and dead set on eating him. He managed to burn away most of them. And surprisingly the cat heroes even helped. Pretty dang competently all things considered. When it was over, Sam tried to get his helmet to identify what the little monsters were. The realization that they were parasites from the dimensional Leviathan that Sam had killed really didn't help matters any.

"I'm sorry I put you guys in danger. They must be following me because I killed their host. I'll get out of your hair, uh fur, and you guys can go back to catting around or whatever you do. Thanks, uh, for letting me stay," Sam told the FanCatstic Four. There was a surprising amount of feline affection for a little bit. Then Sam flew back up into Earth orbit. He wasn't entirely sure where to head to. But maybe jumping in dimension to Knowhere, then trying to jump from there out could get him some much needed help from dimensional specialists. 

It was worth a shot.


End file.
